E36/Z3 steering rack, unis, etc.

[Madhatter]

Need to make some more room for headers as im changing to 1 7/8" primaries on the LS1. Vorshlag make a kit to remove the original linkage and replace it with a much thinner and compact linkage, but as much as I think their product is a great bit of kit, I can't justify the $385 cost when It looks like you can get the same components for about half the price.

Seems like a total no brainer to just go ahead and order the same unis from flaming river http://www.flamingriver.com/index.ph...ts/c0005/s0008 which run to about $80 each

And buy the Double D steering shaft in the correct length from pretty much anyone (summit, jegs, etc) which will run to about $20-$40 depending on length.

$200 vs $385, see what I mean?

Question I have though is, anyone know what spline count the E36/Z3 rack is? I know the E30 item to the steering shaft/column that seems to be used is the 17mm, 54 spline uni which is #FR1963, but what about the other end for the E36/Z3 rack? is it just the same spline count?

Just fyi, im ordering some more parts for my LSX build from summit and the FR1963 uni is $70 and some 3/4" Double D shaft is $14.

[Ian Bowers]

FWIW -- E30 (airbag cars) splines go directly onto the Z3 rack when swapped in. Hopefully that helps.

[garretvs]

Borgeson in the US make u-joints with the 17mm - 54tooth DIN spline that BMW uses on their steering shafts. They also have D-shafts to connect the u-joints. Check them out

[Madhatter]

Flaming river seems to about the same price too I guess. So does that mean that all bmw racks are 17mm, 54 spline? I got this feeling that the Z3 rack was different?

Cheers Ian, non airbag car though. :)

[garretvs]

The 17mm DIN spline is common across BMW. We used E34 u-joints in our swap. We'd have used Borgeson if they had them available when we were swapping.